ATHINA ONASSIS - ALEXIS MANTHEAKIS

 

Alexis Mantheakis, for several years a close friend and spokesman of Athina’s family died last  Friday, much to Athina’s profound grief. He was 68.

 

In recent years, Mantheakis had withdrawn from public affairs and had devoted his life to writing books about Athina Onassis.  He also campaigned for various Greek causes including the return of the Parthenon marbles to Greece,

 

He grew up in a Greek family in colonial East Africa, where he attended the “Prince of Wales” boarding school in Nairobi, Kenya.

 

His youth coincided with Kenya’s struggle for independence, which occurred just 3 months after he left Stanford.  And in recalling the collapse of colonial life, after years of opposition and protest, a lesson for today.

 

It pays to be demanding with the British when Greece opened the fabulous Acropolis Museum at the base of the Parthenon in 2009.  Mantheakis lobbied against British officials being received on its step and led protests against them for not returning the marbles back for housing in the new world-class museum.

 

Even if Elgin received Ottoman permission, which is disputed, he did so without the permission of the “enslaved nation”, Mantheakis told Stanford Magazine recently.  In 2.500 years Greeks have never given up ownership.

Manthesakis spent several years of his life as a spokesman for Athina Onassis’ family. He wrote several books about the heiress.  The most famous one is “Athina Onassis in the Eye of the Storm,” published in 2012.

 

In the book, he describes the private life of the heiress.  The reader can accompany the author and Athina to Scorpios, her private island, learn about the mystery woman and the bitter divorce when Athina brought to an end to her 11-year marriage to Olympian Show Jumper, Doda de Miranda Neto.

 

You will also read about the father/daughter feud and what really went on about her Brazilian husband.  Eccentric admirers, court cases, controversial Brazilian wedding, the Onassis triangle curse, the secret of a 12-year-old kidnapped Onassis girl, an incident of Aristotle Onassis in Claridge’s Hotel bar, where he had a serious talk with Doda.  I also asked her to tell m more but she refused, it was too early to give more details,“  said Mantheakis.

 

“After three years of contact with her,” he continued, “it was only last year that she gave me the dossier that I reloaded on FaceBook, with 120 pages with documents and certificates which I believe are the key in the divorce of Athina and Alavaro.   

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